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Blackwood
Blackwood was a type of black-barked cedar tree sacred to the Tiste Edur of the Lether continent.Midnight Tides, Chapter 1, US SFBC p.36 It was brought to the Malazan world from Kurald Emurlahn when the Tiste Edur first arrived.Midnight Tides, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.563 Blackwood trees lived over a thousand years, towered over their surroundings, and were devoid of branches until their uppermost reaches. The rings of the tree were bands of red and black. Some thought the red flesh of the tree uncomfortably resembled raw muscle or meat.Forge of Darkness, Chapter 13, US HC p.383 The Tiste Edur had many uses for Blackwood and used their Kurald Emurlahn sorcery to coax the will of its living wood. Blackwood was used to construct the hulls and paddles of the Edur's K'orthan longboats,Midnight Tides, Chapter 1, US SFBC p.43Midnight Tides, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.94 creating ships that healed themselves, resisted magical attack, and possessed unmatched speed across the waves.Midnight Tides, Chapter 4, US SFBC p.124-125 It was also used to build furniture,Midnight Tides, Chapter 1, US SFBC p.38 such as tablesMidnight Tides, Chapter 5, US SFBC p.175 and chairs.Midnight Tides, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.238 Blackwood was valued for crafting spears because it was deemed resistant to shattering.Midnight Tides, Chapter 18, US SFBC p.550 The Tiste Edur planted Blackwood trees to line the important streets of their villages and ring their sacred sites. Blackwood trees were lumbered to construct defensive palisades through which living trees were shaped to form tunnel-like entry gates. Tiste Edur noble families used Blackwood to form the ridgepoles and beams of their longhouses and planted a single Blackwood tree near the hearthstone at their homes' centre. Weapons were bound to the tree so that over centuries they would subsumed into the trunk of the tree as it grew.Midnight Tides, Chapter 1, US SFBC p.36/38 The Tiste Edur often invested Blackwood with sorcery, casting a pall of gloom and shadow upon the trees' surroundings. The Edur also carved crowds of wards into the Blackwood lumber used in their defensive fortifications. Tiste Edur burial rituals involved encasing the deceased within a layer of copper, then placing their body within a hollowed trunk of Blackwood. After six days, the bole would be buried in one of the sacred groves.Midnight Tides, Chapter 3, US SFBC p.100 It was suggested that Blackwood was closely related to bloodwood, with some calling it "black bloodwood".Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1 In Midnight Tides Members of the royal household of the Kingdom of Lether envied the living wood of their Tiste Edur neighbours and sought to go to war over control of its sources. In Dust of Dreams There were once whole forests of Blackwood in the realm of Kurald Galain, but all were used to fuel the great forges during the Tiste civil war. When the Shake returned to Kharkanas, they found that the forests had grown back again. In Forge of Darkness The table within Draconus' Chamber of Campaigns at Dracons Hold had been cut from the bole of a three-thousand-year-old Blackwood.Forge of Darkness, Chapter 1, US HC p.9 Notes and references Category:Flora